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Caramel Rice

A sweet rice dish coated in caramel and cooked with milk and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Caramel Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine loaf sugar and water in a small saucepan.

  2. Boil until the mixture turns a golden toffee color.

  3. Pour caramel into a dry souffle mold or basin, coating it all over.

  4. Let it set.

Make the rice custard

  1. Combine rice and milk in another saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently for about one hour until the rice is tender.

  3. Remove from heat, stir in castor sugar and beaten eggs.

  4. Pour into the mold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + ricetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Loaf sugar
Melts and caramelizes to form the golden coating and adds sweetness.
Rice
Forms the body of the dish as its starch softens and thickens with simmering.
Milk
Provides moisture and creaminess as the rice absorbs it and turns tender.
Eggs
Set when baked or chilled, binding the rice into a firm, sliceable custard.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the milk and eggs.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar to a golden toffee color. Sugar darkens quickly once it passes golden, and overcooked caramel turns bitter and burnt. Pulling it at golden color keeps the flavor sweet and nutty. Coat the mold while the caramel is still fluid, because it hardens fast as it cools.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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